Inferno

Introduction to Inferno

Inferno is a term used for Hell. It is an important part of Dante’s epic,

Divine Comedy that is followed by two more books, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.
In this book, readers go through Dante’s journey into hell as guided by the
Roman master, Virgil. The description of Hell includes the nine circles that
Dante visits with Virgil, while he travels to meet his beloved, Beatrice. However,
at some point, Virgil cannot enter because he is a pagan. An allegorical poem,
Inferno shows his imaginary journey through Hell.

Background of the Author

Inferno is the first poem in a three-part series called The Divine Comedy.
Inferno is an allegorical journey through Hell. In part, Inferno is a political
allegory, and in part it is a religious allegory. It is also a story following the
classic elements of a comedy—it starts in the depths of Hell but ends with the
joys of Heaven.
In this epic poem, Dante himself has to travel through the layers of Hell in
order to find his dead love, Beatrice, who is watching over him in Heaven. She
sends the poet Virgil, who is spending eternity in Limbo, to guide him and help
him make his way to her. Dante feels great feelings of pity and is overwhelmed
at first, however he seems to come to a deeper understanding of Hell and how
it functions as a spiritual realm, so by the end he possesses a certain
acceptance and wisdom about Hell and its purpose.

Summary

Major Characters in Inferno

1. Dante Alighieri: Dante is the narrator in the story of Hell but also the

main character or the protagonist. Through his experience, he describes
what he witnesses, including the events and in the case of Dante,
involved in all the events as he visits different circles and pockets in
those circles. He also talks to Virgil, King Minos, and several other
characters to come to know the reason for their punishments. The
description of the pockets, circles and the sinners graded by the severity
of their sins shows that Dante gets the impression that he is a devout
Christian and poet. His expression of wonder, terror, fear, religious
devoutness, superiority over Virgil, and power to move beyond Hell
through his beloved Beatrice shows his participation in the events.
2. Virgil: Virgil is considered Dante’s ancient mentor, a pagan Roman, and
is the second major character of Inferno as he accompanies Dante during
 his entry as well as visits to the different circles of Hell. However, it is
interesting that Dante states that Virgil cannot enter Hell and other
areas as he’s not a Christian. So, Virgil hands him over to Beatrice, his
beloved, who is to guide him through the rest of the sections. However,
they are not in their physical form, for it is their souls that are traveling
through Hell. Virgil, in fact, represents human rationality and
mentorship here.
3. God: God is conspicuous through His omnipresence despite physical
absence. When Dante thinks of entering Hell, God appears with him all
the time. However, once he enters Hell with Virgil, he sees Him as Hell’s
designer, its Ruler, and Author. Wherever Dante goes, he sees God
everywhere through different sinners, their pockets where they face
punishment, different circles of Hell, different animals, beasts, and types
of punishments. Dante presents justifications for the punishments being
awarded to the sinners. He validates that God is punishing sinners for
disobeying His ways.
4. Satan: Lucifer or Satan meets Dante in the last pit of Hell, facing
his sentence for raising the flag of anti-God rebellion. The poet presents
his physical figure as a giant person with huge arms. Shown as a symbol
of transgression, Dante paints his dismal picture of undergoing torments
for his sins of rebellion.
5. Beatrice: Dante’s beloved, Beatrice, is a virtuous lady. Later she
becomes his mentor after Virgil does not win permission to continue in
the other circle. She guides him through the rest of the sections that
Virgil could not enter. Although her love for Dante has become
proverbial, she married some other person in her life on the earth. Yet
Dante presents her as a divine figure whom God has blessed.
6. Charon: Charon is borrowed character from Greek myths. He is
significant because of his job of assisting the souls in crossing the river
Acheron. His role regarding Dante is interesting as he refuses first and
accepts their request when Virgil appears.
7. Minos: The significance of King Minos lies in his mythological role of
classifying sinners following their punishments awarded to them on
account of the gravity of their sins.
8. Cerberus: The significance of Cerberus lies in his role as the guard in
Hell. His terrifying physical figure and vicious nature become clear
through his aggressiveness.
9. The Minotaur: Minotaur’s responsibility is of punishing the sinners in
the seventh circle. He also blocks Dante and Virgil from going further.

Plot

The poem begins on Good Friday in the year 1300. The poet Dante Alighieri is
lost in a forest and is looking for the way out. He cannot remember how he got
there. He decides to try and climb to a sunny point on a nearby mountain but
meets a leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf. Unable to fight them, he returns down
to the dark forest. While wandering, he encounters the ghost of the poet Virgil,
who says that he will guide him to the top of the sunny mountain. Virgil tells
Dante that their path goes through Hell, but they will eventually reach Heaven,
where Dante’s love, Beatrice, is waiting for him. Virgil tells Dante that Beatrice
saw him wandering alone and afraid and sent Virgil to help guide Dante to her.

In Canto II, Dante invokes the muses, asking for help telling his experiences as
he travels through Hell. As he approaches the gates, he fears that he will not be
worthy of traveling through Hell and returning.

In Canto III, Virgil leads Dante through the gates of hell, which read “abandon
all hope, you who enter here.” As the pair enter Hell, they first go through the
outer layer, the Ante-Inferno. In this part of Hell live the people who were
unable to live either lives of good or of evil and so neither Heaven nor Hell
would accept them. Now, they chase after a blank banner every day while
hornets sting them, and worms drink their blood and tears. A boat lead by an
old man, Charon, takes Virgil and Dante across the river of wailing souls into
Hell. Dante feels pity for the souls he’s witnessed already and is uneasy about
entering Hell. He faints.
When they enter Hell, they arrive in the First Circle, Limbo. This is where
pagans and good people who did not know Christ are housed. Here he meets
Ovid and Horace, and he learns that this is where Virgil resides, along with the
great philosophers Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, etc.

In Canto V, Virgil and Dante descend to the Second Circle of Hell where they
meet the monster Minos. His job is to assign punishments to the condemned
souls who enter. The Second Circle of Hell is where the lustful wind up.
Overcome with pity, Dante faints for the second time since he’s arrived in Hell.
When he awakens, he is in the Third Circle of Hell. The gluttonous are housed
in this circle and are forced to lie in mud while they are rained on by filth and
excrement. Dante asks Virgil what will happen to the souls in hell after the
Last Judgment, and Virgil answers that since the Last Judgment will bring
perfection to all of creation, the punishments of those in Hell will be perfected
as well.

The Fourth Circle of Hell avaricious and prodigal souls are forced to charge at
one another with boulders. These are the people who hoarded and squandered
their money, respectively. They are in this Circle together because of their
imprudence with Fortune. At the end of Canto VII, Dante and Virgil descend to
the Fifth Circle of Hell and see the River Styx. Covered in mud, these souls
residing here fight and bite one another relentlessly. These are the souls of the
wrathful. There are also souls submerged in the river, the souls of the sullen.
In Canto VIII, Dante sees someone he knew on the banks of the river. Rather
than feeling pity, he is glad to see that this individual is being ripped apart by
others. In Canto VIII, Virgil and Dante enter Lower Hell—the city of Dis. Fallen
angels refuse Dante entry. In Canto IX, Dante sees three Furies who call for
Medusa to come and turn Dante to stone. Virgil covers Dante’s eyes in time to
prevent this. An angelic messenger arrives to force open the gates and allow
Dante entry to the Sixth Circle of Hell, home of the heretics. Here, as Canto X
begins, Dante encounters a political rival, Farinata. He tells Dante that he will
be exiled from Florence, but admits that as part of the punishment, heretics in
Hell can only see distant events, not present ones.

Canto XI sees Virgil and Dante enter the Seventh Circle of Hell. Here, those
who committed violent acts against others spend eternity boiling in a river of
blood. They meet with a group of centaurs who take them into the Second Ring
of the Seventh Circle of Hell, where those who committed suicide reside. Here,
they endure eternity as trees. Traveling onwards, the pair encounter the souls
of the blasphemers, the sodomites, and the usurers (those who were violent
against God, those who were violent against nature, and those who were violent
against art, respectively).

In Canto XVIII, Virgil and Dante arrive outside the Eight Circle of Hell, which is
made up of several pouches. The First Pouch houses the panderers and the
seducers, the Second Pouch houses the flatterers, the Third Pouch contains
Simoniacs, the Fourth Pouch contains the astrologers, the Fifth Pouch houses
those who accepted bribes, the Sixth Pouch contains hypocrites, the Seventh
Pouch contains the thieves, the Eight Pouch contains the False Counselors
guilty of spiritual theft, the Ninth Pouch contains the Sowers of Scandal and
Schism, and the Tenth Pouch houses the liars.

In Canto XXXIV, Dante and Virgil reach the pit of the Ninth Circle of Hell, in
which the three-headed Lucifer resides. In each of his mouths, he is chewing
on a sinner. The three greatest sinners are being chewed violently, but they
never die. They are Judas, who betrayed Christ, and Brutus and Cassius, the
betrayers of Julius Caesar. Virgil says they have now seen all of Hell and must
leave. They reach the Lethe, the river of forgetfulness and travel from Hell back
to Earth. They emerge on Easter morning.

Major Themes in Inferno

1. Punishment of Sins: The entire journey of Dante to Hell shows it as the

document intended to pinpoint sinners and specific sentences they are
given in different circles and different pockets in Hell. God has graded
them and then punished them according to the severity of their deeds.
For example, they see King Mino’s grading and throwing the sinners
according to the severity of their sins. In the next circles, different people
 such as the persons having committed acts of violence in the name of
religion, nationalism, region, or have betrayed the people, or have
committed other sins. Although Virgil does not speak except when
guidance is imperative, it seems that the harsh punishment has rather
quietened him. The division of chambers, circles, pockets, and then
gradation and classification of the sinners show Dante’s concept of
punishment as per his Christian ethical framework.
2. Love: Inferno shows the theme of love in two aspects. The first one is the
nature of divine love and the second is the earthly love that leads to
divine love. The argument of Dante is that God is also love and that God
has created Hell and Heaven because of His love for his creatures and
chosen people. The second love is Dante and Beatrice whom he wishes to
meet in Heaven as he believes her to be there. His argument is that his
earthly love has led him to divine love.
3. Human Rationality: The theme of human rationality emerges with the
presence of Virgil who is the symbol of this rational thinking along with
the line of the ancient philosophers and poets that they meet when
entering Hell. The other thing is that Dante also shows the logic behind
the punishment of the sinners after their classification into different
pockets in different circles of Hell. It is because he thinks that humans
commit sins where they find a chance, and hence they are to face the
punishment according to their sins.
4. Language: One of the secondary thematic strands of Inferno is the use of
human language and its role in rational thinking and reasoning. Their
visits to different circles and conversations with different sinners also
show how language is used to convey one’s perspective. The truth about
this usage of language emerges when Dante argues that his pen does not
seem empowered to picture the entire scene of the punishments awarded
to the sinners in Hell.
5. Presentation: The description of Hell by Dante also is a part to prove
that Hell exists physically with gates, gatekeepers, walls, mentions,
pockets, and circles. The division of the main building of Hell seems an
arena with several circles that have smaller pockets where sinners face
their punishment as per the gravity of their sins. This includes the
physical situation of the sinners how they face suffering in their circles
and the physical environment in which Dante is following his mentor,
Virgil.
6. Evil: Dante sheds light on the self-devised taxonomy of evil or sins. He
explores the nature of sin, and isolates sinners based on the severity of
sin, explores the nature of sin. He also describes the way they are being
punished such as the punishments for betraying, bribery, murders,
blasphemy, and so on. Hence, murderers are kept in the sixth circle of
Hell while bribery has been placed in the eighth circle. It is the
realization of the Christian values that Dante has prioritized this ethical
 system. It also combines with God’s creation and will to punish or
reward..
7. Storytelling: Inferno also presents Dante’s skill of storytelling through
a Christian mindset. The expulsion of Virgil after the first section shows
that only devout and good Christians can enter Purgatorio or Paradiso
beyond Hell and that it is the story of the Christian religious
and moral framework.
8. Poetic Profession: Inferno also highlights Dante’s desire to show the
readers that poetry is a high calling and is used to praise God and Jesus.
His own status through Virgil, the pagan roman, shows his desire to
render the poetic recitation of his belief to show its superiority over the
Romain faith and its poetic rendering by the masters.
9. Self-Presentation: Self-presentation is another major theme of
Inferno. Here Dante presents himself as a common person, having God’s
fear and Christian thinking as the center of his attention.

Influence on Literature
Dante’s The Divine Comedy is considered to be a landmark in European
literature. Inferno is widely considered by scholars to be the greatest medieval
poem written in vernacular language. It is upheld as a beautiful poem
unmatched by any other of its time. The fact that this poem is written in
vernacular Italian—the common language of the people—it provides an
amazing historical context in which literature and language can be evaluated
and studied.
Before Dante, most epic poems, and literature in general, was written in Latin
and nobody quite understood the value and poetic beauty that could come
from writing in one’s natural tongue. The Divine Comedy is genuinely a comedy
in terms of the classic genre. It is upheld in two ways—it is written in
vernacular language, and it starts off sad/dramatic (in Hell) and ends on a
happier note (in Heaven).
What Dante truly did well with Inferno is to write a universal work that critics
would praise due to its elevated style, but ordinary people could also access
and enjoy it.

Commentaries
The Divine Comedy influenced the development of humanism and many other
aspects of the Renaissance. Dante's work was the foundation of humanism in
European literature or the use of vernacular language in literary works. In
addition, it also laid the foundation for modern Italian (formerly Florentine
Tuscan).

References
https://literarydevices.net/inferno/
inferno/summaryhttps://writingexplained.org/literature/dantes-inferno/
summary